Amorphous Host Materials Based on Tröger’s Base Scaffold for Application in Phosphorescent Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

Tröger's bases (TBs) functionalized with carbazoles (TB-Czs) and phosphine oxides (TB-POs) were designed and synthesized as host materials for application in phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes. The TB scaffold is shown to impart thermal stability with high Tg values (171-211 °C) as well as high triplet energies in the range of 2.9-3.0 eV. With a limited experimentation of the devices, it is shown that the TBs doped with a green phosphor, namely, Ir(ppy)3, permit impressive external efficiencies on the order of ca. 16% with a high brightness of ca. 3000-4000 cd/m2. Better device performance results are demonstrated by a small structural manipulation of the TB scaffold involving substitution of methyl groups in the core scaffold.